Will Ferrell's Proposal to Wife of 20 Years Was Just as Funny as the Man Himself | She Gets His Humor Even Now

Anchorman star Will Ferrell, 52, is not the usual silver screen hero. Like Mike Myers who is known for his portrayal of Austin Powers, the characters Ferrell plays are goofy, naughty, and a racket. He leaves people in splits with his films and turns out that the funny man doesn't just make his audiences laugh but his wife too. Ferrell and Viveca Paulin have been married for almost 20 years now and are still going strong as ever.

Paulin, 50, who founded and is a trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Contemporary Friends, told Art News once, "I am drawn to artists that think differently than I do." Perhaps, that could be the key to her marriage too. She belongs to the art world, and with a B.A. in art history, has worked at auction houses; a world that's very different from the Step Brothers actor's. But, people always say that opposites attract.

They have may have married in 2000 but how they met five years earlier makes for a sweet love story. Born in Sweden, Paulin had moved to California to get her B.A. from Pomona College in Claremont. She graduated in 1991, and for a brief time was interested in acting. In fact, she met him in 1995 at an acting class. They dated briefly and stayed friends even when he moved to Los Angeles, according to Elle. She helped him sustain himself in L.A. because he needed money for rent. As she worked at an auction house, she was able to get him a job as a typist.

In due time, thanks to her support, he got a job on Saturday Night Live in 1995, which meant that he would have to leave for New York. "I was in another relationship and Viv and I would talk as friends for two hours, and it would feel like five minutes, and then my girlfriend would call and after 15 minutes I'd be like, 'God, it's really late here on the East Coast. I should get some sleep.' For me, Viv was the one that got away," he said.

A while later, he returned to L.A. and they reconnected. She invited him for a beer and Ferrell's description of the night could really be a scene from a rom-com. "She drank her beer in two sips— just pounded it," Ferrell said. "She was like, 'Do you want another one?' I was like, [incredulous] Yeah, okay. She quickly drank that one, too. And she said, 'I think I still like you.' I was stunned. I didn't play it cool at all. I went, 'I just told my uncle that I'm going to marry you one day!'"

Once they had confessed their feelings for each other, "We didn't know what to do with ourselves." So, she drove him home, and "I went in for the kiss, and she gave me the cheek. I was like, What does this all mean?" Ferrell recalled.

They had already been friends for five years by then. And, unlike what people say that once a man is "friendzoned" there's no coming back, he made a comeback. "We started over—after a five-year friendship, we literally started courting each other," Ferrell said.

In 2006, he told People magazine about how the proposal became unintentionally funny. "It started serious but ended up comedic. I took her to this beach where we had had one of our first dates. She wanted none of it. She was like, 'The beach is creepy at night.' I was like, 'Shut up, this is supposed to be really romantic.' I was trying to think of what I was going to say and it just turned into, 'So I, uh, really like you and, uh, anyway….' Then I went down to a knee—at least I think I did—and proposed. So it was kind of funny, but not on purpose," he said.

The couple got married in 2000 and got three dogs before they became parents to three boys with Viking names: Magnus, Mattias, and Axel. His wife has continued her foray into the art world and is now a renowned art auctioneer. Despite busy lives, the couple doesn't forget to laugh together.

"What I love most about Viv is very simple. She totally got my sense of humor. I sent her flowers every day for a week with a card like, 'You're the fifth-prettiest woman in the office.' She loved it. We had a shorthand with each other," he told Elle.

The actor-producer might know how to keep his audiences laughing, but he also knows how to keep his wife on her toes with his romantic gestures. The 52-year-old sends love letters to Paulin, 50, every Valentine's Day. But, those messages are not without a twist.

"I’m very good about flowers and I do write very interesting notes," he said, before reading out one of them on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, "Happy Valentine’s Day, Viveca. My love for you has grown over the years by a total of 3 percent.’" A second card read, "Honey, you are a great mother. But you have no sense of personal space. Back off. Happy Valentine’s Day."

References:

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/viveca-paulin-ferrell-2479/

https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a14247/will-ferrell-movies/

https://people.com/archive/will-ferrell-answers-your-questions-vol-66-no-21/